Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama: Let's hug it out

Hillary Clinton called President Barack Obama on Tuesday to “make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him” when she recently discussed her views on foreign policy in an interview with The Atlantic, according to a statement from a Clinton spokesman.

The statement comes amid tension between the Clinton and Obama camps in the wake of the interview. It also comes as Obama and Clinton, his former secretary of state, are due to cross paths at a social gathering Wednesday night in Martha’s Vineyard.

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In the interview, Clinton dismissed the Obama administration’s self-described foreign policy principle of “Don’t do stupid stuff.” And while she also praised Obama several times, Clinton nonetheless called his decision not to assist Syrian rebels early on a “failure.”

Earlier Tuesday, longtime top Obama aide David Axelrod took a swipe at Clinton on Twitter, writing: “Just to clarify: ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision.”

The statement from Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill noted that although Obama and Clinton have had disagreements, she has discussed these differences publicly before, including in her memoir, “Hard Choices.”

“Secretary Clinton was proud to serve with President Obama, she was proud to be his partner in the project of restoring American leadership and advancing America’s interests and values in a fast changing world,” said the statement, shared with POLITICO. “She continues to share his deep commitment to a smart and principled foreign policy that uses all the tools at our disposal to achieve our goals. Earlier today, the secretary called President Obama to make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him, his policies, or his leadership.

It continued: “Secretary Clinton has at every step of the way touted the significant achievements of his presidency, which she is honored to have been part of as his secretary of state. While they’ve had honest differences on some issues, including aspects of the wicked challenge Syria presents, she has explained those differences in her book and at many points since then. Some are now choosing to hype those differences but they do not eclipse their broad agreement on most issues. Like any two friends who have to deal with the public eye, she looks forward to hugging it out when ... they see each other tomorrow night.”

Clinton has always been more of a hawk than Obama; her vote in favor of authorizing the use of force in Iraq haunted her on in the Democratic primary against Obama when they were running for president in 2008, and she only recently, in her book, has said she was wrong to vote that way.

Now pondering a 2016 White House run, she spoke at length on a variety of foreign policy issues with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, a preeminent establishment foreign policy writer who frequently writes about Israel.

She talked extensively about the situation in Gaza, aligning herself tightly with Israel, and spoke in tough tones about Iran’s nuclear program. When asked about Syria’s civil war, she reiterated her past position that the U.S. should have assisted the Syrian rebels sooner, the efficacy of which Obama has rejected as a “fantasy.” And as far as the “Don’t do stupid stuff” mantra, she said it was not “an organizing principle” — something that “great nations” need.

Despite her pains to praise Obama in the interview — and the fact that her positions on the issues were already publicly known — her comments were widely interpreted through a political prism that casts her as a calculating figure, and that therefore this must have been part of an intentional calibration away from the increasingly unpopular Obama.

Several Clinton supporters have stressed that she is entitled to her own views, and that she is in a bind — either criticized as overly calculating if she stays silent or faulted for being candid about what she thinks.

One of the criticisms about her interview relates to its timing: It comes as Obama is attempting to get his arms around a number of overseas crises, from Ukraine to Gaza to Syria.